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Reported employee safety performance last year was the best in the company’s 150-year history, Union Pacific said Friday.

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Employees achieved a 1.01 reportable injury rate, surpassing the previous best of 1.15 in 2011, the company said.

UP employees cut the rate of reported injuries by more than half (58%) over the decade from 2002-2012, according to a company statement.

Union Pacific's North Platte Service Unit achieved a 12 percent improvement in 2012 compared to 2011, with an employee reportable injury rate of 0.84.

The North Platte Service Unit has approximately 3,000 employees and covers nearly 935 miles of track in most of Nebraska, eastern Wyoming, eastern Colorado and north eastern Kansas.

The company’s reportable injury rate is the total number of injuries reportable to the Federal Railroad Administration per 200,000 worker hours, which is equivalent to 100 employees working a full year.

Bob Grimaila, Union Pacific vice president-Safety, Security and Environment said the decline in injury reports shows employees are committed to "actively caring for their fellow employees, practicing behaviors such as peer-to-peer observation and feedback."

Union Pacific said many employees now get on-the-job training through computer software about maneuvering locomotives in rail yards, operating switches and sorting rail cars onto different tracks.

"This video simulation technology gives employees an opportunity to practice what they have learned in the classroom before they work outside in the real-world rail yard," the company said.

Union Pacific Railroad links 23 states in the western two-thirds of the country by rail.